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Ghost Machine
by
Ben Mirov
Ben Mirov’s Ghost Machine was chosen by Michael Burkard as the winning manuscript in the 2009 Caketrain Chapbook Competition. At first blush, the bluntly unadorned veneer of Mirov’s poems suggests a mode of confessional domestic realism, the “I”/“Eye” who simply “can’t let go of the things I write.” Indeed, our ghost—however transitory, fugitive, adrift on a river of sulk—...more
Paperback, 110 pages
Published
May 1st 2010
by Caketrain Press
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This poetry collection got great reviews, and I was very eager to read it. Reading it, though, was, for me, a reminder that my grasp of poetry may sometimes be lacking. The poems were so abstract that I finished them without getting much from them, even after rereading. Not that I'm doubting their content, just pointing out that they are so abstract that I wasn't able to assemble their threads into a tapestry I could grasp. Perhaps some of you, my poet friends, can read this and tell me what I'm...more
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Some strange things started happening when I read "Ghost Machine." I live in an apartment complex, and across the parking lot, behind a thin tree line, there is a park. I was reading "Ghost Machine" on the balcony. It was about midnight, and suddenly I heard a guy in the park doing karate moves. Of course I could not hear karate moves, but I could hear him yelling, the "Hi-ya" or whatever that accompanies the idea of compacting all energy into a body movement. It seems a little silly, but at the...more
... I dont think I like it. I shouldn't say that. You should never dislike something just because you don't understand it. I'm going to need to spend some time with this collection.
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Just as the solar king-among-planets Jupiter has a permanent storm that perpetually burns, Ben Mirov's GHOST MACHINE will glow like a fireball among the other books on your shelf. Mirov's poems are a hot gust at a time when poets seem to be purposefully ushering the rest of the conscious population out of it's preciously locked kingdom. This book will lift you by the shirt, slap you twice, and spit water in your face. Thank god.
Ben gave this to me after we went out drinking. It's very good. Since it is mostly about events in & around the Bay Area, I feel like I got more out of it living here, but it might be doing a disservice to the work itself to say that, I don't know. Ben's a cool guy and this is a cool book.
The Native American tribes of Northern California wouldn't settle in San Francisco, because they felt it was haunted. Mirov captures the city's empty electricity and undercurrent of existential dread through paratactics, a shifting "I" and plenty of whitespace. May you be lucky enough to never get struck lonely in that town. This book made me quiet.
Ghost Machine is beautiful and quiet and beautifully quiet in much the same way an atomic cloud or a large-scale building demolition is in a living room, dark, with the sound of the television switched off. The ground in Ghost Machine rumbles in careful, steady waves: a kind of ordered chaos.
Ghost Machine makes a sound like this:
“The day goes on too long, gets brittle and close. I sleep on my stomach and drift through the rain. My ticket passes through a machine and I wander to a map. I’m still...more
Ghost Machine makes a sound like this:
“The day goes on too long, gets brittle and close. I sleep on my stomach and drift through the rain. My ticket passes through a machine and I wander to a map. I’m still...more
3 stars means i liked it. i'm not as sold as i thought i would be. but, i also didn't like 'goodwill hunting' as much as everyone thought i should. mirov is a good writer; i'm just not convinced he's a great poet.
Ethereal flashes. They all clicked together and drifted into one another. I'll prob blog this up pretty soon. I was unhappy to see the book end.
Oh, and kick ass cover.
Oh, and kick ass cover.
What a sad little book. Has a commanding forward-moving force and sense of mystery despite/because of its focused style and subject. Mesmerizing.
the beautiful, the sincere, the distanced sad. i feel a personal attachment to these poems, and it feels quite nice.
One of the best books of poetry I've read in the last few years - it's genius.
I outright reviewed the book for Bookslut: coming soon on the web!
This was one of those books that seemed like it came at just the right time for me. I loved its muted sadness and the occasionally surreal descriptions of that sadness. Mirov seems to be in the same poetic school as Zach Schomburg (love that dude!). I like the way Mirov's poems sample from each other throughout this book. It's like a book eating its own tail. I don't think Caketrain printed too many of these things, so you should get it now before it's long gone.
One of those great poetry books that creates its own way of hitting on several recurring themes. I'm glad I bought this one, because I'm certain I will be going back to it.
I love this book.
May 29, 2013
Brandi Gaspard
marked it as to-read
Apr 03, 2013
Mike Gross
is currently reading it
Apr 01, 2013
MORBUS BOEK
marked it as to-read
Mar 01, 2013
Chidi OKORO
marked it as to-read
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